GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 17: Three Armies Against the Emperor's Daughter

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

Marching

As they marched east toward the occupied capitol of Kaskorata, things took a turn for the worse when earthlings bearing the Mark of Clio began to desert.  Those that were questioned echoed what the human Changed they'd interrogated had: it was the end times, great change was coming, and they wanted to have Clio's favour.  They were mostly caught and captured due to the "buddy"" system the Triumvirate had put in place earlier, but now there was the question of what to do with them.  It would take a lot of manpower to guard them, while letting them free would swell the ranks of the Changed.

 

Mielikki and Pomegranite were frustrated that the simplest answer, killing them, would be bad for morale.  After some consultation with the terramorphers in their ranks, none of whom had deserted (Mielikki: "Their faith protects them!"), Thicket used his terramorphing to dig an extremely deep pit and lined the walls with sheer stone.  If all went according to plan, they'd be able to pick them up when they came back through the area, and if somebody else wanted to let them out, they'd have to find a rope over a hundred meters long.

 

As the days passed, and Thicket and Mielikki pored over their maps of the region and read the reports of their scouts, they realized that many bands of the Changed looked to be travelling to the same destination, about 3 days northwest of Kaskorata.  It was unclear why they were gathering, but this could prove to be a problem if they decided to march south toward Kaskorata and caught the earthlings in the rear.  However, they could also be useful if they were lured into the Segretans, who by all accounts were still holding position within the city walls.  Thicket's misdirection weeks earlier had worked quite well.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 16: Unlikely Allies

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

A Meeting With the Elven Diplomat

Pomegranite arranged a private meeting with Uthemar, the chief diplomat of the elven delegation, to discuss the state of the world.  Uthemar bemoaned the College's (and more specifically, Eva's) desire to unseal the Paths, and Pomegranite expressed that the earthlings agreed with him, and could hopefully postpone any such moves by putting forth a unified army that would be prepared to battle the Void Beast directly.  He then brought up the matter of Tharivol and his band of the Changed that were rampaging throughout the South. 

 

Uthemar believed that the College's assessment of surging magical energies coming from the unbalanced Paths was reasonable, and suggested that Tharivol may simply have been afflicted by the magical madness that was affecting the rest of the Changed, though he was more dangerous than most.  Pomegranite asked if he knew anything of the "Mark of Clio", but the elf claimed little knowledge of human religion.  As far as he could tell, it was the symbol of the goddess Clio, and perhaps for more secular groups such as the College, a symbol representing the Path of Change.

 

As far as people being themselves marked, a subject which Pomegranite brought up without mentioning that this had happened to Granmarg and Thicket, Uthemar assessed that it meant merely that they had been affected more by the magics leaking from the Path of Change.  Uthemar then questioned whether those who had been marked during their war in the south had exhibited any sort of madness in the year since their return home, and Pomegranite confirmed that he'd not heard of any.  He suspected Uthemar wasn't telling him everything, but had no way to press him and let it pass.  

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 15: Signs of the Apocalypse

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

Apocrypha

Pomegranite's research into the end times as portrayed by the Imperial faith required him to further delve into the libraries of the Imperial College, where he found records of the Sixth Council of the Faithful which had taken place during the Second Empire.  This Council had consolidated the faith under the banner of Astraean supremacy due to military and political pressure from the Archbishop of Lumene.  As a result of this change in doctrine, many regional texts were no longer recognized as official teachings of the faith, and had been subsequently destroyed.  Now that he had a lead, Pomegranite tracked down one of these texts, an early version of the Book from Wrost, which contained a section on the end times being heralded by the sun flickering thirteen times before being extinguished.

 

Continuing his investigation, Pomegranite found that while the line about seers going mad had become canon, the original text from Segreta had a second line that had not, which stated that the dead would rise from their graves.  After weeks of searching, he was able to piece together a similar bit of text from Tauschun, which stated that those bearing the "Mark of Clio" would be "Changed" and have their "wills bent to the works of the Muse".  The mention of the Mark of Clio was concerning, as both Granmarg and Thicket had discovered that Mark, a fractal spiral, on their bodies during the campaign in Tauschun.  What was meant by the "works of the Muse" was unknown, save that the Muse in question was Clio.

 

At this point, news swept the campus of the College of a breakthrough in the investigation into the missing Path of Prophecy, and Pomegranite took a break to attend the lecture given by High Magister Eva.  In front of a large audience of other Magisters, she announced that she had opened a gate to the edge of the Path of the Void, which bordered Prophecy, and saw there in the void between the Paths a great insectile beast made of bulbous segments, with six legs, six mouths, and six faceless heads.  From where she had seen it, it appeared to be "swimming" through the void directly toward her, and therefore the Path of the Void.

 

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 14: A Time of Peace?

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

Wurm Slayers

The wurm whirled around and spat another gobbet of magma at Pomegranite and Granmarg.  Pomegranite dove to the ground, but rolled, and quickly scrambled to his feet.  He lunged at the wurm, but it reared back out of the way.  This left it wide open for Granmarg, who had nimbly dodged under the molten rock and landed a haymaker that shattered several of the beast's sword-like teeth.  Roaring, it then charged past them, trampling Thicket as it went, and began to dig into the cliff wall to flee.

 

Thicket and Mielikki regained their feet, but were still staggered, while Pomegranite and Granmarg gave chase.  The wurm was faster than them in the open, but slowed by the dirt, they managed to catch it as Thicket impaled its left leg with a spike of earth that shot out of the ground.  Granmarg finished off its other leg, and cornered, the wurm turned and lunged at him.  He brushed its blow aside with the back of his arm, and then landed a one-two punch that shattered the stone around its eyes, leaving it blind.  Now defenceless and writhing in agony, the wurm was finished off by a thrust of Pomegranite's paired knives (Granmarg: "Kill steal").

 

Curious as to where the wurm had come from, Mielikki suggested they detour north on the way back to Bedrock to find Igneus, a noble he knew of who had a fascination with strange beasts.  The others agreed, and dispatched a messenger to inform him of their desire for him to come to its body and learn what he could.  The Triumvirate kept a slower pace due to their injuries that would see them arrive on Igneus' estate in a week's time.  The manor house in ill-repair, and an elderly servant came to lead them in to the study where his master was waiting.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 13: Holding Court

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

The Terran Faithful

The Triumvirate resumed its meeting on the rebel/reform movements, but struggled to come to any decision, and conversation drifted to the subjects of leverage over the Segretan League, and yet another attempt by Pomegranite to sway the others into going to war with the dwarves.  Before long, they were interrupted by Friedrich Quarry, their "new" High Priest, who was there to inform them of progress on the reconstruction of the Mountain's Maw temple complex.  Quarry had adopted a human first name in honour of the old emperor and was a thorn in their side, looking to radically restructure the church to merge it with the Imperial Faith.  He even wore human-style clothes!

 

Simply put, it would not be possible for the foreseeable future.  The earth below the mountain and temple was continually shifting, and anything they built would collapse in a matter of days.  Mielikki asked if there were signs of volcanic activity, as that was part of the end times foretold in earthling religion, but Friedrich assured him that their terramorphers had dug deep and found no signs of magma or rising temperatures, so for now, at least, this was not a larger threat.

 

On the subject of the end times, though, the version of events as told by The Book, the holy text of the Imperial Faith, seemed much more relevant.  The sun was red and hanging in the sky, it was unseasonably warm, and stars were going out.  This was driving people to the Imperial Faith as a result, something the Triumvirate knew the high priest was actively facilitating as he tried to merge the two faiths.  Mielikki "joked" about "finding another book of Terran myth", which shocked both Thicket and even Friedrich, radical that he was, badly enough that he was forced to drop it.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 12: Dealing with Dukes

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

 

The Imperial College

The earthling army marched back out of the province of Tauschun and to the College far to the northeast. The further north they travelled, the longer the red sun hung in the sky.  By the time they were approaching Halberst, there were only a few hours of normal daylight, the rest an orange twilight, with night perhaps half as long as it should be.  As they passed through the rocky and mountainous terrain that had been transferred to the College in the recent treaty with Ulrich, some of the College magisters took their leave from the army to begin the work of assessing the value of the region.

 

Weeks of travel through the rocky highlands of Halberst later, they arrived at the Imperial College itself, which was defended by a one hundred foot tall circular wall of solid, magically created stone which was, they noted positively, similar to earthling construction methods.  Leaving the bulk of the army to camp outside the city, the commanders arrived at one of the great circular gates and walked down the broad thoroughfares of the "new city" until they arrived at the edge of the College campus, which had been built over the ruins of the old city following its destruction after the rebellion of the old King of Halberst.  A few sections of the old fortifications still stood, typically where they abutted buildings.

 

As they arrived at the campus, a small delegation led by High Magister Curzo came out to meet with them.  There was no fanfare, and those from the College wore only their typical robes.  Curzo extended a curt greeting, and congratulated the commanders on a successful campaign in Tauschun.  Mielikki explained that, though they had acquired some of Tauchun's land, they had been unable to secure the province's support for Cliffside, the nephew of Thicket that they were supporting as the next Emperor.

GURPS Fantasy Warriors Session 11: The Treaty of Gebirg's Pass

Characters:

Granmarg The Striking Vanguard, The Boulderstruck, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate
Pomegranite The Treefallen, The Spymaster

Mielikki The Field Marshal, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Thicket The Grandmaster Terramorpher, Member of the Earthling Triumvirate

Last Gasp

The axeman chopped away at Mielikki and was joined by Dietrich who glided forward on a wave of sand, while the rest of the earthlings were on the ground, either unconscious or reeling from their injuries.  On the verge of collapse, Mielikki signalled and horns began to blow as the remainder of the army charged forward as he and the rest of his advisors retreated.  Dietrich gave chase, attempting to end things by eliminating the commander, but ended up being captured by the common soldiers as the rest of his troops were forced into a rout and he surrendered, alone.

 

On the far side of the battlefield, Drirtollor made a heroic effort to stop Hans Hessen, the Imperial Marshal, launching a surprise attack.  With the aid of earthling terramorphers, they surged across a bridge that suddenly jutted out and across an otherwise impassable ravine.  Unfortunately, the Marhsal was too skilled a commander, and the earthlings were, despite their valour, sent fleeing.  At the end of the day's battle, both sides found their camps razed, and would come to meet at a neutral pavilion to discuss terms.

Negotiations

Curiously, Tharivol was absent, having been replaced by a red-headed Knight of the Blazing Sun, but the rest of the Imperial commanders, including Dietrich, who had been captured, were present.  Similarly, Granmarg and Pomegranite, who had likewise been captured earlier in the day, rejoined their comrades, now sporting some new scars from their battles earlier in the day.  For now, at least, high-ranking prisoners were still being treated with honour.